aggression

Eric Schadt Commits Violence at Work (And So Do You)

Haig Chahinian

Contrary to his teddy bear looks, pioneering scientist Eric Schadt (pronounced “shot”) engages in battle every day at work. In a laudatory feature in Esquire, Schadt relates how the book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn influenced the way he thinks about violence in his career.

Initially published in 1962, Kuhn coined the term “paradigm shift,” which captures the essence of Dr. Schadt’s current endeavors. From Esquire:

According to Kuhn, scientific progress is not a peaceful process, characterized by the gradual accumulation of knowledge. Rather, it’s a nearly political one, characterized by acts of intellectual violence. A paradigm is like a king — it’s the body of knowledge and practice that coheres around a theory or a discovery, and in periods of stability everybody serves it by practicing what Kuhn calls “normal science.” Eventually, though, it becomes insufficient to its own ends and enters a period of crisis, during which it comes under attack by those practicing “extraordinary science.” At last, the king is overthrown, and that’s a paradigm shift.

Schadt, who practices extraordinary science as the Chief Scientific Officer at Pacific Biosciences, says, “I remember the exact month, almost the exact day I started reading that. It was when I first started graduate school in 1993.”

The article continues:

A paradigm shift requires not only scientists practicing extraordinary science; it requires “attackers” and “persuaders” willing to declaim the end of the old order and announce the dawn of the new. Schadt has turned out to be both. He’s very aware that biology is in the middle of a paradigm shift and very aware of his role in both the murder of molecular biology — the king is dead! — and the establishment of its successor. He’s even produced a documentary film entitled The New Biology, which heralds the arrival of a biology that’s “more like physics” and “more quantitative in nature” than biology has ever been.

Did you catch that? To recap: 1. The discipline of biology–the study of life itself–is being decimated and rebuilt as we speak. And 2. Eric Schadt is forging the path to the New Biology. Indeed his star is rising.

So the genomics guru commits all kinds of violence at work. And so do you. Read more →

Not Listening at Work Can Be a Pain in the Mouth

Haig Chahinian

During a session of the Upper House’s constitutional affairs commission in Argentina this week, legislator Graciela Camano hit talkative lawmaker Carlos Kunkel on the mouth. Is this a reasonable resolution to a budget argument? Not really.

Aggression is an all-too-real component of human nature, so of course it exists in the workplace.  Because these feelings can be hard to tolerate–in yourself or in others–it may be helpful to work towards:

1. How you can channel aggressive feelings more productively, and
2. How we all might prevent frustration on the job from turning into rage.

We can relate to what Camano must have felt leading up to that slap: anger, competition, disappointment, frustration and resentment–a veritable cornucopia of unpleasant emotions. While it’s difficult to manage such feelings from workday to workday, physical assault is never an acceptable solution. Unless you’re a professional boxer, natch.

So what’s a workable solution?

In the video, it appears that neither Camano nor Kunkel is listening to the other. Camano stated she’s “been putting up with him all year long” and that “he is always attacking” her, which suggests they may not have a history of listening to each other.

Because budget-related issues often underscore complex, ideological questions, all lawmakers involved in the Upper House’s constitutional affairs commission could benefit from improving their active listening skills.

Have you lost control of yourself at work? What prompted you, and what resulted?